194 ACCESSIBLE FIELD SPORTS. 



I would further advise that your leaders should be 

 stained as nearly as possible to the colour of the water ; 

 but care should always be taken not to make them too 

 dark, as you thus go to the opposite extreme that you 

 adopt this plan to avoid. Brown and a bluish- grey or 

 light neutral tint are decidedly the best colours, the 

 former to be used when the water is clearing out after 

 heavy falls of rain. To procure the first-mentioned 

 colour, a few ounces of alum dissolved with a pound 

 of the bark of the walnut tree when the sap is up, I 

 think is the simplest recipe ; while the latter colour 

 can be got by substituting logwood for walnut. 



Of course, as the season advances, and the quantity 

 of water diminishes, and the noonday sun becomes more 

 powerful, the size of your flies must be proportion ably 

 less. Even the hours of the day have to be consulted for 

 choice of size ; for instance, from break of day till sun- 

 rise and from sunset till dark, very large flies frequently 

 will take, while the smaller would be totally neglected. 



An Irish gentleman, who had for many years been 

 considered one of the most successful and expert per- 

 formers on the river Corib, while on a fishing tour in 

 America, had the kindness to show me the treasures 

 contained in his valuable fly-book. Among a remark- 

 ably choice collection of all sizes, shades, and con- 

 struction I observed many so large that they excited 



